Magic Johnson is a retired professional basketball player and entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of $500 million. Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA.
Earvin Johnson was born on August 14, 1959 in Lansing, Michigan. His father, Earvin Sr. was a General Motors assembly worker, and his mother, Christine, was a school custodian. Johnson found a love for basketball at an early age. He was given the name “Magic” at the age of 15. He was a highly successful high school basketball player named to the McDonald’s All-American team and accepted a scholarship to Michigan State University.
Johnson was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers first overall in 1979. He played in the NBA for 13 seasons having his career cut short by the contraction of HIV. During his 13 years, he won the NBA Championship 5x. He was a 12x NBA All-Star. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and is widely considered one of the greatest players of all-time.
During Magic’s playing time, he earned over $50 million in salary alone. He also won many endorsements because of his charismatic personality. Johnson’s biggest money was earned after his playing career as an entrepreneur. Magic Johnson enterprises is a company with a net worth of $700 million. Its subsidiaries include Magic Johnson Productions, Magic Johnson Theaters, and Magic Johnson Entertainment. He’s also created the Magic Card, a prepaid Visa card for low-income people and partnered with Starbucks to create his own coffee chain. Magic has become an incredible businessman. His entrepreneurial successes have allowed him to become part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers with Guggenheim Partners, Stan Kasten and partner Peter Gruber. Johnson and Gruber also own the Dayton Dragons, a minor league baseball team. He teamed up with Guggenheim to to purchase the Los Angeles Sparks in 2014.
Currently, Johnson is an actively helping to promote awareness and raise money to fight HIV. He created the Magic Johnson Foundation to raise money to fund research. In 1992, he joined the National Commission of AIDS, a committee that was appointed by members of Congress and the Bush Administration, but shortly left after being appointed because of his disgust with the governments’ attentiveness to their initiatives. Johnson still continues to battle the HIV from progressing into AIDS. In doing so he takes medication and has been used by GlaxoSmithKline for advertisement purposes – nothing that has contributed substantially to his net worth.
Johnson’s net worth was initiated by his NBA career and endorsements, but was taken to the next level when he dedicated himself to becoming a successful business man. Johnson is one of the few athletes who took a prosperous sports career and turned it into an empire. Quite an incredible achievement considering his career was cut short – a death sentence for many athletes today.
Johnson is one of the wealthiest former professional athletes in the world today. His net worth figures to grow as his business continues to expand. As long as Johnson stays healthy the sky is the limit for him.
